Introduction
A long time ago it would have been impossible to have predicted that you could become a multi-millionaire from simply playing your favourite video games. However that has now become a reality in this modern day. With hundreds of professional players having made millions of pounds throughout their gaming careers. Whether this has come from streaming live competitions, winning tournaments, endorsements or sponsorship deals.
For example, the top 40 richest eSports players have all earned at least $1.5 million with every single one of these being Dota 2 Players. The industry as a whole is now also worth over a billion dollars, with experts predicting that this figure will exceed $1.6 billion by 2021 at least.
Biggest Prize Pots
Now we are going to look at some of the biggest prize pools that gamers have had the chance to win. The most significant prize pot to date was at a Dota 2 Championship back in 2017, which was around $20.8 million. To put this into context, players who were on the Super Bowl winning team the New England Patriots took home just over $100,000 each.
The money, however, isn’t raised by a single person but taken from a pot. This means for every battle pass that a player of the game buys; around 25% of the sale goes towards these tournament winnings. Another big game is League of Legends which has attracted approximately 36 million viewers for the world finals back in 2015. In recent years, League of Legends has had prize pots varying from $4.9 million to $6.4 million.
However, it isn’t just at these big tournaments that you have a chance of winning money. For example Dreamhack last year had a prize pool of $100,000 for players who were playing CS-GO in the Winter Open. Of course, if you’re playing an eSport that is a team game; this usually consists of five players, and the prize pot will be split five ways. However, this along with sponsorships and endorsements are leading some players to become very wealthy indeed, so much so that they would probably not have to work a day in their lives and they are winning all of this money playing their favourite video games.
A Final Few Words
Due to the riches that are to be gained by winning these tournaments; it has led to a surge in popularity when it comes to eSports and for some players to dedicate many hours each day practising and accumulating a fan base in order to one day establish themselves as a professional gamer.
However, it isn’t always the financial gain that motivates players to become professional. Some just have a passion or a talent for their chosen game. Some players also won’t be professional but will be a hit with fans when it comes to streaming providing a source of entertainment for viewers to enjoy during their downtime, so there are many different avenues to explore.
